Sports season
The 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series season was the eighteenth in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing . It consisted of 16 races, beginning in Homestead, Florida on March 3 and concluding in Monterey, California on September 8. This was the first season after the split with the Indy Racing League and the last year that CART operated under the name "IndyCar", with the trademark reverting to Indianapolis Motor Speedway at season's end. The Indianapolis 500 was replaced by the U.S. 500 , held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan .
The PPG Indy Car World Series Drivers' Champion was Jimmy Vasser , whose Honda/Reynard won four of the first six races, including the inaugural US 500 . Rookie of the Year was Alex Zanardi . The competition soon starting catching up to Vasser, who had to fend off two late challenges from veterans: Al Unser Jr. 's consistent performance saw him come close to tying Vasser late in the season, but his hopes evaporated after a last-lap crash at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and an engine failure while leading on the final turn at Road America . Michael Andretti 's resulting victory there and in Vancouver put him in contention at the final race, but a disappointing result at Laguna Seca gave Vasser the championship. Rookie driver Jeff Krosnoff and a course worker died in an accident at the Toronto round, and one week later, Emerson Fittipaldi was in a serious accident at the start of the Marlboro 500 and had to retire.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1996 Indy Car World Series season.
Team Chassis Engine Tires No Drivers Rounds Primary Sponsor Brahma Sports Team Reynard 96I Ford Cosworth XD G 1 Raul Boesel All Brahma Marlboro Team Penske Penske PC-25 Mercedes IC 108C G 2 Al Unser Jr. All Marlboro 3 Paul Tracy 1–12, 14–16 Jan Magnussen 13 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH F 4 Alex Zanardi R All Target 12 Jimmy Vasser All Walker Racing Reynard 96I Ford Cosworth XD G 5 Robby Gordon All Valvoline Reynard 96I Ford Cosworth XB G 15 Scott Goodyear 1–2, 11, 15–16 Valvoline DuraBlend Mike Groff 5 Fredrik Ekblom 6 Newman/Haas Racing Lola T96/00 Ford Cosworth XD G 6 Michael Andretti All Texaco -Havoline 11 Christian Fittipaldi All Budweiser Team Scandia Lola T96/00 Ford Cosworth XB G 7 Marco Greco 1–2 Int. Sports/Perry Ellis Eliseo Salazar 7, 9, 12–13 Cristal 22 Carlos Guerrero 1–3 Herdez Michel Jourdain Jr. R 4, 7–9, 15–16 Hall Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH G 8 Gil de Ferran All Pennzoil Hogan Penske Racing Penske PC-25 Mercedes IC 108C G 9 Emerson Fittipaldi 1–12 Mobil 1 Jan Magnussen R 14–16 Galles Racing International Lola T96/00 Mercedes IC 108C G 10 Eddie Lawson R 1–11 Delco Electronics Davy Jones 12–16 Bettenhausen Motorsports Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C G 16 Stefan Johansson All Alumax Penske PC-23 Mercedes IC 108C G 26 Gary Bettenhausen 6 Alumax PacWest Racing Group Reynard 96I Ford Cosworth XB G 17 Maurício Gugelmin All Hollywood Cigarettes 21 Mark Blundell R 1–2, 6–16 Visa Teo Fabi 4–5 Team Rahal Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C G 18 Bobby Rahal All Miller 28 Bryan Herta All Shell Payton/Coyne Racing Lola T96/00 Ford Cosworth XB F 19 Hiro Matsushita All Panasonic 34 Roberto Moreno All Data Control Patrick Racing Lola T96/00 Ford Cosworth XD F 20 Scott Pruett All Firestone Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard 96I Toyota RV8A F 25 Jeff Krosnoff R 1–11 Arciero-Wells Racing MCI Max Papis R 13–14, 16 Tasman Motorsports Group Lola T96/00 Honda HRH F 31 André Ribeiro All LCI Communications 32 Adrián Fernández All Tecate All American Racers Eagle MK-V Toyota RV8A G 36 Juan Manuel Fangio II R All Castrol 98 P. J. Jones R 6–16 Della Penna Motorsports Reynard 95I Ford Cosworth XB G 44 Richie Hearn R 4, 11, 16 Ralphs Brix Comptech Racing Reynard 96I Honda HRH F 49 Parker Johnstone All Motorola Project Indy Reynard 95I Ford Cosworth XB G 64 Dennis Vitolo 4 SmithKline Beecham Player's/Forsythe Racing Reynard 96I Mercedes IC 108C F 99 Greg Moore R All Player's
Rnd Date Race Name Circuit Location 1 March 3 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Presented by Toyota O Homestead Motorsports Complex Homestead, Florida 2 March 17 IndyCar Rio 400 O Autódromo de Jacarepaguá Rio de Janeiro , Brazil 3 March 31 Bartercard Indycar Australia R Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise , Australia 4 April 14 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach R Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 5 April 28 Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix O Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pennsylvania 6 May 26 U.S. 500 O Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan 7 June 2 Miller 200 O Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 8 June 9 ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix R The Raceway on Belle Isle Park Detroit , Michigan 9 June 23 Budweiser/G. I. Joe's 200 R Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon 10 June 30 Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland R Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio 11 July 14 Molson Indy Toronto R Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario 12 July 28 Marlboro 500 O Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan 13 August 11 Miller 200 R Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio 14 August 18 The Chicago Tribune Presents the Texaco/Havoline 200 R Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin 15 September 1 Molson Indy Vancouver R Concord Pacific Place Vancouver, British Columbia 16 September 8 Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey Featuring the Bank of America 300 R Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California
– Toronto was scheduled to run 170 miles, but was shortened due to the fatal accident of Jeff Krosnoff . O Oval/Speedway R Road/Street course
Final driver standings [ edit ] Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th–6th place Light Blue 7th–12th place Dark Blue Finished Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify Brown Withdrawn Black Disqualified White Did not start Blank Did not Not competing
In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps RY Rookie of the Year R Rookie
Note: 1 Jeff Krosnoff died in an accident at the Molson Indy Toronto .
Top result per race counts towards Nations' Cup.
Jimmy Vasser
Reynard
Honda
Alex Zanardi
Brazil 
Canada 
Mexico 
Sweden 
Argentina 
Denmark 
Chile 
Mercedes